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Out of the frying pan, into the fire.
The good news is that Guy Tunnell, commissioner of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, has resigned after becoming caught in an attempted cover up in the beating death of a black teenager at a Bay County boot camp that he helped establish. He tried to hide the videotape showing the beating, much like Michael Schiavo and George Greer tried to keep the public from seeing videotapes of Terri Schiavo.
 The bad news is that reportedly former Pinellas County Sheriff Everett Rice wants to replace him.
If Gov. Jeb Bush has an ounce of common sense and sincere concern for fair and honest law enforcement, he will not appoint Rice to become the next FDLE commissioner. A man of exceptional integrity with unwavering personal values and honesty should be appointed to the helm of the FDLE, a person in whom the public can have the upmost confidence. That's not Everett Rice.
At the risk of being labeled racist or said to be discriminating, after watching the events unfold in the boot camp death, we couldn't help but wonder what would have transpired had Terri Schindler Schiavo been black.
The Martin Lee Anderson case got a special prosecutor. Terri didn't. There was a second autopsy with multiple pathologists present. Not in the Schiavo case where a request for a second pathologist to review the autopsy was denied.
Rice had a very high profile role in the Schiavo case, heavily conflicted and exacerbated by his 20-year friendship with Pinellas County probate court Judge George Greer, the executing judge in the Schiavo case. Despite there being more than sufficient probable cause to open an investigation into various facets of the Schiavo case, Rice steadfastly refused.
In fact, there's evidence that Greer and Rice discussed the case at a baseball game and with an assistant state attorney and then when confronted, tried to deny it had occurred and Greer refused to disqualify himself as he should have done and is required by judicial canons for discussing a pending case publicly.
But let's not forget, for over 20 years, the mother of Michael Schiavo's concubine worked for the Pinellas County Sheriff's office and for Rice 11 years after he became sheriff. No wonder he closed to his eyes to the evidence and allegations of abuse of Terri Schiavo, the exploitation of a vulnerable adult.
In fact, to throw grease into the fire, Rice even hired Michael Schiavo as a nurse in the jail while Terri was still alive, at the same time rebuffing all efforts to open an investigation into the alleged abuse of the disabled woman. Instead, Rice allowed one of his sergeants and the use of a patrol car to appear in a political commercial for Greer's reelection, a blatant violation of election law. Everett Rice isn't above the law anymore than Michael Schiavo is. Is that how he would operate and rule the FDLE---with favoritism, cronyism and politics?
Instead of adding Michael Schiavo to the payroll, Rice should have criminally charged him with filing a false written instrument with the intent of defrauding the taxpayers. Obviously Schiavo's employment application was rubber stamped and approved without any background checks, with only a cursory look at the statements made on the application. Scary. Who else did Rice hire into the sheriff's department based on a false application and without checking the arrest history? All he had to do in the case of Michael Schiavo wass use his own computers to confirm if Schiavo was telling the truth about his arrest history. Apparently he didn't chose to do so.
Michael Schiavo misrepresented his arrest record on the employment application and that by itself should have disqualified him from consideration to be placed on the public payroll, for the taxpayers to pay for him to sit watch at Woodside Hospice for two weeks, waiting for his incapacitated wife to die. And then to add insult to injury, courtesy of Everett Rice, Pinellas County taxpayers had to pay Schiavo to take his honeymoon entourage to Las Vegas. Now his supposedly been promoted to a $68,000 position in the sheriff's department, rewarded for obtaining the position by lying. What kind of message does that send the public? Floridians should be able to trust the commissioner of the FDLE. After all, someone in the FDLE is the one who shut down the Schiavo investigation at the state level. Again, would that have happened if Terri Schiavo had been black?
Schiavo deliberately omitted reporting summonses on his sheriff's department application which he then certified as being true. "Have you ever been charged, cited, arrested or convicted for violation of any laws (including moving traffic violations), by juvenile authorities or any civilian law enforcement agency, regardless of whether the record in your case has been "sealed", "expunged", "dropped" or otherwise stricken?" Schiavo reported only one incident, conveniently forgetting at least four others.
He certified before a notary public that "the facts set forth in the above employment application are true and complete to the best of my knowledge". They weren't and Rice let him get away with it. Is this how Rice would oversee the FDLE, a person would or wouldn't be arrested depending on who they are, who they know, their social and financial status? How could the public have any trust in an individual like Rice?
Schiavo signed the application agreeing that any "misrepresentation or omission by me in this application will be sufficient cause for its cancellation or rejection or dismissal from service of the sheriff's office if I am appointed".
Tunnell's resignation was focused on racial issues---his handling of the death of the black teen and solidified by his acknowledged improper remarks concerning civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, comparing him to Jesse James and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill, comparing him to terrorist Osama bin Laden.
According to published reports, Gov. Bush claims he hasn't given much thought to Tunnell's replacement but says he'll consult with the Cabinet next week. Rice knows he's on the bottom rung of the ladder in the race to become the next Attorney General so he's desperate to find a job. In order to avoid what is sure to become an hotbed of controversy if he should be brazen enough to appoint Rice, Bush needs to look elsewhere for candidates and select an individual of the highest capability and caliber without the baggage that Rice carries. If state voters don't want him for Attorney General, and it's pretty obvious they don't as he appears to be at the bottom of the list, then Bush shouldn't circumvent the will of the people and appoint Rice to a state position, especially such a high powered position as FDLE commissioner.
Several lawmakers have said that the next FDLE commissioner needs to have sensitivity to Florida's increasing racial diversity and has to be "colorblind". That should disqualify Rice immediately.
Charges of racial disparity and discrimination long permeated the Pinellas County Sheriff's office under Rice, particularly in the supervisory positions of the sheriff's department. While Rice tried to claim that he was hiring blacks, the statistics showed that the hirings were being done in the corrections division and clerical staff, not the patrol division. Minority deputies publicly protested discrimination and filed complaints with state and federal agencies under Rice. Florida newspapers basted Rice and the sheriff's department for the lack of diversity and the NAACP took Rice to task. The president of the Minority Law Enforcement Personnel of Pinellas County asked the U.S. Department of Justice for a compliance review of a 1981 consent decree which the sheriff's office had to sign agreeing to hire minorities. Under Rice, the sheriff's office didn't even sponsor minority applicants through the police academy.
There's enough strong feeling stirred now in the black community about the FDLE and Tunnell's handling of the Martin Anderson case. There's no need to inflame the matter worse by appointing Rice to head the FDLE. 4-23-06
© 2006 North
Country Gazette
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